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Learning to Relax in the Garden

Karen McCullough Posted on by

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This post is part of the Authors in Bloom Blog Hop. Read to the bottom to learn how you can qualify for some nice prizes.

As part of the Blog Hop, we’re supposed to share a gardening tip or recipe. Since I’m an avid gardener and pretty much of a bust in the kitchen, it’s a no-brained for me to offer a gardening tip. So for the last week or so, I’ve been racking my brain, trying to come up with a great. Gardening tip. Sadly, I’ve got nothing.

Almost nothing. As I was trying to figure out the most interesting or important thing I’d learned about gardening, the one thing that kept coming to me was simply, “Relax.”

Sounds odd, I know, since gardening involves a lot of physical.labor. But it also involves a certain level of risk, and even failure. Things happen. Critters eat your sweet little plants. Your prized rose bush gets black spot and loses all its leaves. A favorite shrub folds up and dies. I used to take it personally, and felt like a total failure in the yard.

But after watching professionals maintain a lovely arboretum near my home, I’ve come to realize that the occasional garden fatality is normal. It’s part of the cycle of life. Plants die, and plants are reborn. New plants grow. It’s nature on the raw and part of the appeal.

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When Cathy Bennett agrees to attend an important party as a favor for her boss, she knows she won’t enjoy it. But she doesn’t expect to end up holding a dying man in her arms and becoming the recipient of his last message. Bobby Stark has evidence that will prove his younger brother has been framed for arson and murder. He wants that evidence to get to his brother’s lawyer, and he tries to tell Cathy where he’s hidden it. But he dies before he can give her more than a cryptic piece of the location.

The man who killed Bobby saw him talking to her and assumes she knows where the evidence is hidden. He wants it back and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it, including following her and trying to kidnap her.

Cathy enlists the aid of attorney Peter Lowell and Danny Stark, Bobby’s prickly, difficult younger brother, as well as a handsome private detective to help her find the evidence before the killers do.

Hop prizes:

My prize is a $10 Amazon gift certificate for one commented on this post, chosen at random.  Be sure to leave your email address so I can get in touch with you.

The hop grand prizes: To win, visitors must hit each and every author on the hop. Grand prize is an ereader of their choice (up to $200 value) with second prize a $25 gift card to the ebook retailer of their choice.

 

Participating authors are below.

Comments

Learning to Relax in the Garden — 16 Comments

  1. Thanks for having the hop. I get introduced to a lot of authors I have yet to read.

  3. Hey, Karen! Love your post 🙂 I don’t garden, but I have a feeling I’d go nuts trying to keep everything perfect. Even knowing that sometimes nature happens, or death brings better life in future growths, I’d still be very neurotic about it! My parents had up mesh around our trees when they were still super tiny, because the deer kept ruining everything. I’d probably do that with just little shrubs or flowers! (email is ___@___.___.___, fill in the blanks with smiles, alumni, cmu, edu)

  5. Yes after three years of something eating our broccoli plants, we decided not to fight it anymore, just plant something else.
    skpetal at hotmail dot com

  6. Great tip, it is suppose to be fun, not stressful

    fencingromein at hotmail dot com

  7. Gardening isn’t necessarily relaxing to me as I have to rely on hubby to put in soil for my containers as I have back issues. Still, I love the reward when I have veggies in late summer!!

    Barrie

    books4me67 at ymail dot com

  9. I love that gardening advice! I don’t get too stressed about it either. Last year an overly long, cold, wet spring lead to a really disappointing veggie garden. I was lucky if I got 3 tomatoes and the cucumbers didn’t come in until fall. And then rabbits or some other critter came along and ate all but a handful of my sunflower seedlings. I laughed it off. There’s always next year to try again. 🙂
    cchant86 @ yahoo.com

  10. Your attitude is so right. That’s why I experiment in my garden. If my experiment bombs, there’s always the other garden plants to harvest, and I’ve learned something new for next year. (Usually, I learn what not to do, like attempt to grow artichokes in Virginia.)
    It’s been a pleasure making your acquaintance. Thank you for participating in the blog hop.
    casey 4 4 6 at hot mail dot com

  11. Relaxing is the best part of the garden :). I have a 7 and 4 year old who like to dig up flowers or “water” (3 sand buckets full per flower) lol So I gave up on having a beautiful garden
    I have one small area that is off limit to them and it is my tiny sanctuary!
    savannahm1987@gmail.com

  13. Thanks for the giveaway and I think gardening is very relaxing! 🙂
    sienkiel1821 at yahoo dot com

  14. I still haven’t tackled gardening but I’m decent in the kitchen.
    bituin76 at hotmail dot com

  15. My parents have a hammock in their garden. Perfect for relaxing with a good book! eendrizzi79 at gmail dot com

  16. Gardening is fun and relaxing but my plants always die. I have a black thumb. :/ But i do love to cook and im pretty good in that department. lol Thanks!
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

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